People don't think full stop.
From here is seems USA elections is all about hoop-la emotions & tribalism , thought does not seem to come into it .
So no surprise when nonsence happens .
Down here voting is compulsory so that panders to the lazy who just tick the same box they did last time .
The problem is voters are not held liable for the outcome of their vote.
Representative democracies do not work particularly well and 2 party representative democracies are even worse because they become tribal .
Switzerland has the only true democracy and they have the best laws by far .
However politicans hate this idea because they actually have to work to convince the population that the law they are changing is worthwhile and the opposition then has to show it is not .
This is hard work for which they can not get kick backs.
If reasonable gun control laws were put to the good people of the USA there is little doubt it would pass with flying colours .
While it is in the hands of politiicians it never will because it only takes a small number of voters to vote them out .
If the government had to justify new EPA regulations then very few would get past because it is dead easy to show that 99% of them are all show wit high costs to the population & a benefit so low as to be unmeasurable .
Prime example of uninformed tribalism was the Obama care ( communist plot ) vs Medicare debate ( freedom ) where most who were so passionate about it had no idea it was the same thing.
In the land where average engine capacity of motor vehicles is 8 litres the idea that cleaning the exhaust of engines under 1 litre that would be lucky to be running for any more than 50 hours year will have any effect on the enviroment would be seen by Joe public as strait bull dust , particularly when the engines are only "clean" for a very short time .